esperance and cape le grand

sunset at Lucky Bay in Cape Le Grand

esperance is a small seaside-town, about 8hrs from perth,  in the very south-east of WA. it was highly recommended amongst our well-travelled friends as a great place to go and unwind. it’s far enough from perth that most people don’t visit. in fact, when i told people that’s where we’d be stopping first, they generally said “oh esperance. i’d love to go. but it’s too far!” keep in mind that it’s only 8 hours from perth.

esperance does have another attractive quality- it claims to be the home of australia’s best beaches. a big statement given that australia is a beach and there are a ton of beautiful areas. we’ve been told that the beaches in esperance have actually been used in place of east coast beaches in advertisments for areas like the whitsundays. scandalous.

the beaches in esperance proper were lovely but nothing to write home about- especially if home is australia. we were pleased with our location though- a cute little campground just outside of the town, right on the ocean. after 2 nights, we decided to try our luck and drive out to cape le grand.

as it’s a national park, you can’t reserve a spot at the campground- first come, first served (or, as they say in australia, “first in, best dressed”. a statement neither john nor i can actually make sense of. which is it, first in or best dressed?) as luck would have it, there were “lots” of places left at the “campsite” at Lucky Bay. quotations are because "campsite" is generally a loose term in australia (or WA. we’ll discover more as we drive i’m sure) and the campsite was actually just a large gravel/dirt parking lot, with numbers allotted. i still find it hard to shake the expectation that in a national park (national!), you might actually have a small patch of grass or area to yourself, maybe a tree or a bush to shield you from your neighbour. alas, ‘tis not so. but what was lacking in campgroundness was made up for with simply stunning scenery.

Thistle Cove- Cape Le Grand

Shortly after we got Betty settled in for the night, we went for a walk along the beach. the sand was white as snow and fine as caster sugar. it actually made a crunchy snow-like sound when you walked on it. and it squeaked! the water was an amazing turquoise-blue colour. definitely a contender for the most beautiful beach in australia! we were incredibly tempted to swim but chose not to for 2 reasons. one, it was bloody cold out and two, the waves looked like they might suck me in and drag me to antartica.

Lunch break on the Coastal Track

the next morning we ventured off along the coastal track- it’s a 15km one-way walk. we decided not to disturb Betty and set-off for a shorter return-trip to hellfire bay. the walk was surprisingly well marked (so very un-WA) and graded appropriately (also very un-WA). as we climbed and clambered up rocks and through shrubbery, we were rewarded with endless views of seriously beautiful ocean, cliffs, islands and beaches (definitely more contenders for the best beach award). we returned a bit tired from the journey and not a second too soon- moments after we greeted Betty, the rain came down!

view from the top of Frenchman's Peak- Cape Le Grand

when we woke the next day, we’d decided to move on from cape le grand and start the drive to south australia but not before climbing frenchman’s peak on our way out of cape le grand. the peak was essentially granite and rose about 300m. we scampered to the top rather quickly- enjoying more glorious views of the park before making out way down. a bit slower on the way down, what with the rather precarious angles of the granite.  we ran into a few ladies climbing up the peak in flip-flops! flip flops! might as well rub some grease on your feet and ski down the rock. thankfully we didn’t hear any loud crashing noises or screams- so we think they made it back down safely.

we stopped in esperance for a short while, restocking, recharging and refuelling before we set out on the next leg of our journey: the long, long drive across the infamous nullarbor.

xo